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jFarte far Cljinking Jflen: 

SHOWING THE NECESSITY OF 

AFRICAN COLONIZATION 

TO SECUKE THE SUCCESS OF 

TROPICAL FREE LABOR. 



Bt DAVID CHRISTY, 

AGENT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETr FOR OHIO. 



It is a dictate of prudence, in all human pursuits, to pause, at times, 
and review the past, that we may ascertain whether our efforts have 
been successful, or whether a change of policy may not be demanded to 
accomplish our purposes. The more important the interests involved, 
the greater is the necessity for the adoption of this rule. Let us apply 
it to the efforts which have been made in behalf of the oppressed people 
of Africa. Except the propagation of the Gospel, few benevolent enter- 
prises have enlisted so many hearts as those for the destruction of the 
African slave trade and the abolition of slavery ; and, in none have the 
active agents been so often foiled, and doomed to see their brightest 
hopes decay and almost die, as in these twin offsprmgs of benevolence. 

An impression has gone abroad, of late, among a certain class, that 
much progress has been made in overturning the system of slavery ; and, 
that, in a little time, the task will be done, and the oppressed go free. 
It is proposed, in the space of a few pages, to notice the more prominent 
events connected with the subject, with the view of showing that tliis 
belief is not warranted by the facts in the case ; and that the Anti- 
Slavery policy, so far as it has opposed Colonization to Africa, has re- 
tarded emancipation, by checking the extension of free kbor tropical 
cultivation, and thus rendered slave labor more and more necessary, 
and more and more profitable, in the cultivation of those tropical products 
which the constantly increasing wants of commerce now so imperiously 
demand. 

In performing this task, we shall direct attention to the enormous in- 
debtedness of the Christian world to slave labor, at this moment, for 
certain articles of prime necessity ; then show the inability of free labor, 
in tropical and semi-tropical countries, to compete with the slave labor 
of those regions so as to afford any rehef ; present facts to prove, that 
the tendency of the efforts of Great Britain, in behalf of the African 
race, up to a recent date, has been to increase the evils she was attempt- 
ing to destroy ; offer some considerations which make it probable, that 
the suppression of the African slave trade, an event now considered cer- 



2 Facts for ThinJcing Men. 

tain, will be of immense pecuniary benefit to the slave holders of the 
United States; and, in concluding, demonstrate that the only hope for 
anv o-reat increase of free labor tropical cultivation, at an early day, is 
in Afi-ica, and that the main prospect of making it available there, is by 
colonization to Liberia. 

As the field of investigation is an extensive one, we must study great 
brevity ; and, to render our labors less complicated, we shall refer to 
three articles of slave labor product, only, viz. : Coffee, Sugar, and 
Cotton. Fu-st, then, as to the indebtedness of the Christian world to 
slave labor. 

According to official documents, and other reliable sources of informa- 
tion, the consumption of Cotton in Europe and the United States for 
1S49,* was 1,179,920,000 lbs. Of this amount, only 78,589,200 
lbs. were the product of free labor countries, leaving the Christian world 
indebted to slave labor, for this article of prime necessity, to the extent 
of 1.101,330,800 lbs. 

Of this amount England consumed 624,000,000 lbs., of which only 
71,469.200 lbs. were "from free labor countries, leaving her indebted to 
slave labor coimtries for 552,530,800 lbs. of Cotton. The amount of 
this article consumed by Great Britain, being more than one half of the 
whole consumption of the Chi-istian world, shows that she is the greatest 
prop to slavery in the world. Her pafronage to the slave holders of the 
United Stat<?s, alone, for 1849, was, for Cotton, 734,244,560 lbs., of 
which she manufactured 522,530,800 lbs. and exported the remainder 
to the Continent. 

But why is this ? we may be asked. Why is it that England, after 
making such immense sacrifices for the overthi-ow of slavery in her own 
dominions, should be the principal purchaser of the products of the 
slave labor of a rival nation? TTe answer, that her greatness and 
power, the ability to meet the payment of the interest upon her na- 
tional debt and to sustain the throne itself, is dependent upon her com- 
merce ; and that her conunerce is based upon her exports of manufac- 
tures. These exjxirts stood as foUows, for the year 1849, and that 
year will serve as the index to other years : 

Silks Exported, $5,001,785 

Woolen Goods, Exported, 42,096,650 

Linen " " 20,517,215 $67,615,050 

Cotton " " 8139,453,970 

It will be seen, therefore, that Cotton is indispensable to Great Britain, 
and that to cut off her supply of that article, would be to destroy nearly 
two thirds of her commerce, manufactures of Iron excepted. 

The United States is also dependent upon Cotton, to a large extent, 
as the basis of her foreign commerce, not only as it respects the raw 
material, but in the manufactured article. 



♦Tliis Tract is a condensed enumeration of the facts embraced in the pamphlet addressed to 
the Ohio Constitutional Conrention, in ISoO, on ■• the present relations of free labor to slave 
labor." and theu- bearing on African Colonization. The authorities, for the fiicts stated, are all 
giren in that document, and are to be reUed upon zs, correct, both there and here. The suppres- 
sion of the slave trade, then in anticipation, has now been nearly realized, and the arguments 
based upon this event will be found worth considering. 



Facts for TliinMng Men. 3 

To understand the full indebtedness of the Christian world to slave 
labor and to free labor, respectively, at this moment, the following figures 
must be given : 

CONSUMPTION OP COTTON", SUGAR, AND COFFEE, IN 1849. 

Slave Labor. Free Labor. Slave Labor Excess. 

Cotton, lbs. 1.101.330,800 78,589.200 1,022,741.000 

Sugar, " 1,220.000,000 983.024,000 286.975.000 

Coffee, " 338,240,000 217,800,000 120,440,000 

These figures show the relation in which the Christian world stood, to 
these two systems of labor, in 1849, and that relation has not since 
undergone any material change. Nor is there any practicable mode of 
immediately altering this relation, now apparent to the eye of the 
Christian philanthropist. Much dependence has hitherto been placed 
on the application of moral suasion, for the removal of slavery from our 
country. But the demands of commerce now far outweigh the moral 
forces operating against that institution, and it must continue, as far 
as man can judge, until a change in the sources of supply, of the com- 
modities upon which slave labor is employed, can be accomplished. 

But there is no prospect of such a change being effected in the 
countries now producing these commodities. Their production bv slave 
labor has been rapidly increasing for many years, while that by free 
labor has been as regularly decreasing, so that no material change is to 
be expected very soon. The truth of this assertion wiU be evident when 
it is stated, that the forces employed within the western hemisphere, in 
the cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, for export, stand about 
thus : * 

Slave population 0,657,000 

Free colored population 1,657,000 

The latter class, standing only as one to six, cannot, by any possibil- 
ity, compete with the former, and no revolution in the supplies of the 
commodities named, is to be expected from that quarter. 

In confirmation of this view, it is only necessary to say, that while 
the slave trade supplied the English West India planters and those of 
Hayti with laborers, the exports in a single year, of the articles under 
consideration, from these Islands — the latter in 1790 and the former in 
1807— amounted to 928,000,000 lbs. ; while under freedom, from 1838 
to 1848, their exports averaged, annually, only 356,000,000 lbs., — 
being a decrease of 572,000,000 lbs. As there was, during the periods 
named, no diminution in the consumption of these articles, but a steady 
increase, this falling off in the amount of free labor products operated 
as a great stimulus to the slave holder, and also to the slave trader. Is 
this doubted ? Then look at a few facts connected with this subject. 

^Vlien England prohibited the slave trade to her citizens, and thus cut 
off the supply of laborers to her West India planters, in 1808, the ex- 

* This does not include the free colored people of the United States, nor the one miUion of slaves 
in this country, who reside north of the Cotton and Sugar line. The whole number of African 
glares in the Western Hemisphere is about 7.600,000. 



4 Facts for Thinking Men. 

ports of slaves from Africa, were but 85,000 annually ; but, instead of 
beino- diminisbecl by that act, that bloody traffic went on increasing^ 
until, in 1830, it had reached an average of 125,000 annually. In 
1833, the Emancipation Act was passed by Parliament, and it was fol- 
lowed by a still farther increase of the slave trade, running up the ex- 
ports of slaves from Aiiica, between 1835 and 18-1:0, to 135,800 per 
annum. 

But why this result 'i Cuba, Brazil, and the French West India 
Colonies, continued to purchase imported slaves, that they might extend 
their cultivation, and reap aU the advantages of the decreased produc- 
tion, under free labor, in Hayti, and the British West India possessions 
To o'ive a clear idea of the rapidity with which the demand for these 
products has increased, one instance only need Jbe given, which will 
serve as an index to the whole. In 1805, the English consumption of 
Cotton was but 60,000,000 lbs. In 1833 it was 287,000,000 lbs., 
and in 1845 it had risen to 626,000,000 lbs. But in 1849 it was 
reduced to 624,000,000 lbs. To this fact we shall recui- again, at 
present merely stating, that as the cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and 
Cotton, went down in Hayti and the British West Indies, it went up in 
the countries employing slave labor. 

Beino- in the possession of such facts as these, a just conception can be 
formed of the present indebtedness of the Christian world to slave labor, 
and the character of the obstacles in the way of effecting any immediate 
change in that relation. In the article of Cotton, alone, the excess of 
the consumption of the products of slave lalwr over free labor, is more 
than one thousand millions of pounds ; and, in all three of the products 
named, it is o^ex fourteen hundred and thirty millions of pounds. 

Attention must now be directed to another aspect of this subject, and 
one that is indispensable to the proper understanding of the present 
posture of slave labor. 

It had become apparent, at the close of 1849, that slave labor, and 
free labor, both combined, were about to fail in producing an adequate 
supply of Cotton and Coffee, to meet the demand for these commodities; 
and, as a necessary consequence, the prices of both advanced, largely, 
beyond what they had been for years. It was also known, that ex- 
cept so far as more favorable seasons might afford larger crops,^ occa- 
sionally, no increased ratio of production was to be expected in the 
countries engaged in the cultivation of these articles ; and that their 
consumption had been increasing in a greater ratio than their production, 
so that a short supply must l^ecome permanent, unless additional laborers, 
in other countries, not now producing them, could be induced to engage 
in their cultivation. 

There was one mode, indeed, by which an increased production of 
these commodities might have been secured, in the present producing 
countries ; and that was by an unlimited and untrammeled increase of 
the slave trade, adding, annually, two or three hundi-ed thousand slaves 
to the plantations of Brazil, Cuba, and other slave labor countries. 
And such was the pressing necessity for an increased supply of Cotton 
in England, in 1850, that this course of policy was very nearly adopted. 
The philanthropists, despairing, at that moment, of the suppression of 
the slave trade, and anxious to relieve it of the horrors induced by the 



Facts for Thinking Men. 5 

fear of capture on the part of the traders ; and, moreover, being mostly 
" peace men," and opposed to the shedding of blood ; had commenced 
to urge the withdrawal of the naval squadrons from the African coast, 
so as to leave the traffic in slaves once more unmolested, that it might 
be prosecuted with care and deliberation and less loss of human life. 
During 1850 and each of the four preceding years, Brazil received from 
Africa, from 50,000 to 00,000 slaves for the supply of her planters, 
notwithstanding the efforts of the squadrons to prevent it. But, as the 
mortality of her slaves is ten per cent, per annum, she needed 200,000 
at least, to keep pace with the demands which , commerce was making 
upon her for slave grown products. The English Cotton lords, foresee- 
ing, doubtless, that the movement would at once double the supply of 
laborers to Brazil, and increase her ability to export Cotton, readily 
united with the philanthropists, and, in the name of humanity, demanded 
that the government should withdraw its African squadron. The adop- 
tion of this measure by Pai'liament, would have given to the slave 
trader an uninterrupted field for renewing his horrid traffic in human 
flesh. But Lord John Russell brought the whole weight of his influence 
against it, as Premier, and refused any longer to liave the action of 
government controlled by men who had proved themselves, throughout 
the anti-slavery movement, as ignorant of the principles of political 
economy, as they were erroneous in their notions of human nature. 

To afford a true idea of the embarrassments under which the English 
manufacturers labor, in reference to a supply of Cotton to keep their 
looms in motion, it is only necessary to state : that from 1830 to 1845, 
omitting 1837 and 1841, the increase in the consumption of Cotton in 
England, averaged, annually, nearly 35,000,000 lbs. The whole con- 
sumption, in 1830, was 247,600,000 lbs. and in 1845 it had risen as 
before stated, to 620,496,000 lbs. But in 1845 her consumption of 
Cotton had reached its maxunum, and she has not since manufactured 
so large a quantitj^ in any one year, by two or three millions of pounds. 
The reason of this is fully explained in the London Economist and other 
British periodicals. Her suppUes of Cotton from all other countries, 
except the United States, had been diminishing for many years, save 
when excessively high prices diverted a larger portion from India to 
England. The i-atio of increase in the production of Cotton, in the 
United States, has been only about three per cent, per annum, or nearly 
equal to the natural increase of her slave population. Beyond this ratio 
of increase, the production of Cotton in the United States cannot extend, 
excepting so far as new and richer lauds are obtained and cultivated ; 
and, even then, an increase from this cause cannot be permanent, as 
much of the Cotton lands of the South have been worn out and aban- 
doned, and much more must share the same fate. The ratio of increase 
in the production of Cotton, in the United States, cannot, therefore, rise 
permanently much beyond three per cent, per annum. 

Now, we wish it noted, particularly, that the ratio of increase in the 
manufacture of Cotton, in the United States and the continent of Eu- 
rope, equals this three per cent, per annum, and takes up the whole 
increased production of the United States. Owing to the disturbances 
in Europe, of a political nature, the manufacturing interests on the con- 



6 Facts for Thinking Hjen. 

tinent have been somewhat deranged, but at the opening of 1850, the 
condition of this question was as we have stated. 

England, then, has been left without the means of procuring a suffi- 
cient supply of Cotton for her manufactories ; and has been driven to 
extraordinary efflirts, for some years past, to remedy this evil. These 
effi)rts need not be noticed in detail : they were begun in India, extended 
to Australia, to South Africa, and last of all to Liberia. The results of 
these attempts have been rather discouraging, generally, and, in some 
instances, total failures, except in Liberia ; where the soil, climate, and 
population, afibrd hopes of complete success, when the new Republic 
shall have sufficient capital to employ the native labor within its borders. 

And here we may be allowed to remark, that it does not appear to 
be so much from a dislike to the use of the slave grown Cotton of Brazil 
and the United States, that England is seeking supplies from other 
countries, as because she cannot obtain enough of it to meet her wants. 
After using 552,. 500, 000 lbs. of slave grown cotton annually, and but 
71,4(39,000 lbs. of free labor origin, it need not be clahued that the 
Cotton lords of England have any scruples of conscience on that score. 

But we must advert to another aspect of this great question. 

When a skillful general has to contend with a powerful foe, he never 
rushes recklessly on to tlie contest, relying for victory upon mere bravery ; 
but surveys the enemy's movements and position with care, aims at 
discovering his plans, and then attacks the posts of most vital importance 
to his adversary. It cannot, justly, be claimed that the English anti- 
slavery effiirts have been conducted upon this principle ; but it can be 
shown that the slave trader, and those interested in sustaining his unholy 
traffic, have acted upon it, and, until very recently, have gained strength 
and superior advantages from every movement made for the suppression 
of that traffic. 

It can also be shown that the signal failure of West India free labor, 
so unexpected to the emancipationists, and so destructive to the West 
India planters, was, in a good degree, the legitimate result of the slave 
trade. Look at the facts. The constant and cheap supply of slaves to 
the planters of Cuba, enabled them to produce Sugar at £12 the ton; 
while in the English West Indies, under freedom, the planters have been 
unable to produce it for less than £20 the ton, though paying the free 
laborer but 18| to 25 cents per day, as wages, the workman boarding 
himself. Such wages being insufficient to allure the freeman to the toils 
of the sugar mills, or to induce him to allow his wife or daughters to go 
there, except from necessity, the planters, unable to pay more, at the 
prices their Sugar Iwre in market, could not compete with the Cuban 
slave holders, and had to abandon their estates. It was thus that the 
slave trade crippled English West India cultivation, and rendered it 
wholly powerless as a competitor to slave labor; and it was thus, again, 
that slavery was made to react so as to sustain the slave trade. 

The same remarks will apply to the cultivation of Coffee, and the same 
results, nearly, have followed, in all cases, where either manumitted 
free labor, or Par/an free labor have come into competition with African 
slave labor, in the production of the commodities which we have been 
considering. Here are the facts: 

Brazil and the Spanish West Indies, excluding Cuba, exported, in 



Ff^ts for ThinMng jMen. 7 

1832, only 94,080,000 lbs. of Coffee; but after the English emancipa- 
tion of 1833, the enormous importation of slaves into the former coun- 
tries, enabled them to run up their production so as to export, in 1848, 
the immense quantity of 313,600,000 lbs. of this article. See the enor- 
mous power of the slave trade ! In IG years it enabled these countries 
to increase their coffee exports from 94,080,000 lbs. to 318,000,000 lbs.! 

On the other hand, Hayti, the British West Indies, Ceylon, Mocha, 
and India, all free labor countries, exported less in 1848, by 6,000,000 
lbs., than they had done in 1832. 

Java and Sumatra, also free labor countries, though increasing their 
exports of Coffee from 60,480,000 lbs., in 1832, to 156,800,000 lbs. 
in 1843; yet, owing to the extreme low prices, in the following years, 
arising from the heavy supplies from Brazil, they allowed tlieir exports 
to fall off, in 1848, 12,400,000 lbs. below what it was in 1843. 

Cuba, employing slave labor, diminished her coffee exports, it is true, 
from 49,280,000 lbs., in 1832, to 22,400,000 lbs. in 1848; but it was 
only to increase her sugar exports from about 100,000,000 lbs. to near 
600,000,000 lbs. per annum, and to give the death blow to its produc- 
tion, by free labor, in the British West Indies. 

Here, now, without further details, are facts enough to enable think- 
ing men to discern how far the failure of free labor tropical cultivation 
is due to the slave trade ; and to convince them that not only in Sugar 
and Coffee, throughout the whole field of their production, but in Cotton, 
too, has manumitted free labor, as well as pagan free labor, failed to 
sustain itself in competition with African slave labor; and that the slave 
trade has embarrassed, discouraged, and almost ruined free labor tropi- 
cal cultivation. 

But let us look a little more closely at the position into which this 
tremendous agent of evil, the slave trade, has thrown the Christian world. 
By introducing a savage population into new and rising Christian States, 
where labor was much in demand, it has checked the progress of civiliza- 
tion, and entailed evils that the wisdom of man is unable to remove. 
By multiplying at will the number of slaves in the world, it has cast a 
blight upon free labor within the tropics. By rapidly augmenting the 
supplies of slave labor products, at cheap rates, it has driven those of 
fi-ee labor from the markets, except at ruinous prices, and thus has it 
successfully paralyzed the arm of the freeman. By securing to slave 
labor the monopoly of the markets for its products, it has compelled the 
Christian world to become the prop of that system, by making it necessary 
that she should consume its fruits. By this decrease of free labor pro- 
ducts, it has placed slavery, apparently, upon an immovable basis, 
enabling it to bid defiance to its enemies, and to force England, the 
most deeply interested of all nations in its destruction, to become its 
principal supporter. Thus, the day of freedom for the slave, it would 
seem, is prolonged, and the hope of the philanthropist almost ready to 
expire. Here, now, is the position in which this momentous question 
stood at the ojjening of 1851. 

But before the close of that year, we heard the cheering declaration, 
by the British Prime Minister, that the slave trade was virtually at an 
end. Tired of diplomacy with Brazil, and wearied with repeated viola- 
tions of treaties, on the part of that government, the English squadron 



8 Facts for Thinking Men. 

was sent to her coast, and, by firing into the slave trading vessels in her 
ports, brought her to terms. Brazil at once agreed to prohibit the traffic 
in slaves to her citizens, and it is confidently believed that she will now 
act in good faith, inasmuch as she will be closely watched by England. 

That the boast of the British Premier was no idle one, is proved by 
the parliamentary reports of the present year, on the Brazilian slave 
trade; which show that only about 3,000 slaves had been smuggled into 
Brazil during the past year, while the number introduced during the five 
preceding years, had been from 50,000 to 60,000. 

The Queen of England, in her speech of the 15th August, 1852, at 
the prorogation of Parliament, says: "Treaties have been concluded by 
my naval commanders, with the king of Dahomey and all the African 
chiefs whose rule extends along the Bight of Benin, for the total abolition 
of the slave trade, which at present is wholly suppressed upon that post." 

The recent purchase of the tenitory between Liberia and Sierra 
Leone, by President Roberts, upon which our Ohio colony is to be 
planted, has placed the whole of that part of the coast under the juris- 
diction of the Liberian authorities, and forever rendered the slave trade 
illegal throughout its former strong holds in the Gallinas and Grand 
Cape Mount. 

We may, therefore, say, remarks the editor of a leading Boston paper, 
that there is not now, on the whole coast of Africa, a single open, legal- 
ized slave mart for the foreign trade. Slaves may, and no doubt will 
be smuggled from Africa, as long as Cuba encourages the traffic ; but 
there is no longer any place on that continent, where slaves can be 
openly collected and kept for the foreign market and sold to foreign 
traders, under cover of African laws. 

This, then, is a new and most important fact, to be added to those 
which we have noticed in our rapid review of the present condition of 
free labor and slave labor, and it must produce great revolutions in the 
qviestions we have been considering. Let us, therefore, proceed to take 
a calm and dispassionate review of the history of past events and results, 
so as to form a sound judgment of what will be the practical effects of 
the suppression of the slave trade, upon tlie interests of free labor and 
slave labor respectively. As the prosecution of that traffic, by supply- 
ing an abundance of laborers, at cheap rates, has paralyzed free labor 
tropical cultivation, every where, and secured to slave lal)or the principal 
monopoly of the markets of the world for its products, let us see what 
results may be anticipated from tlie suppression of the slave trade and 
the consequent suspension of the supplies of slaves from Africa to the 
planters of Cuba and Brazil. 

As like causes produce like effects, under similar circumstances, we 
must see if a like event with the present suppression of the slave trade, 
has before occurred, and then ascertain the results that followed. A 
case precisely parallel, is afforded in the history of the prohibition of the 
slave trade, to the British West India planters, by the English Parlia- 
ment. 

These planters, up to 1806, had received from the slave traders an 
uninterrupted supply of laborers, and had rapidly extended their culti- 
vation as commerce increased its demands for their products. Let us 
take the results in Jamaica as an example of the wliole of the British 



Facts for TIdnMng Men. 9 

West India Islands. Slie had increased her exports of sugar from a 
yearly average of 123,979,000 lbs. in 1772-3, to 234,700,000 lbs. in 
1805-6. No diminution of exports had occurred, as has been asserted 
by some anti-slavery writers, before the prohibition of the slave trade. 
The increase was progressive and undisturbed, except so far as affected 
by seasons more or less favorable. But no soono' was her supply of 
slaves cut off, by the Act of 1800, which took effect in 1808, than the 
exports of Jamaica began to diminish, until lier sugar had fiillen off from 
1822 to 1832, to an annual average of 131,129,000 lbs., or nearly to 
what they had been sixty years before. It was not until 1833 that the 
Emancipation Act was passed; so that this decline in the exports of 
Jamaica, took place under all the rigors of West India slavery. 

The cause of this decline in the exports of the British West India 
colonies, is easily explained. The planters preferred males as laborers, 
and the slave traders imported males, principally, from Africa, to sell to 
them. As soon, therefore, as the supplies were withheld, the slave 
population began to diminish, by the usual mortality among the adults; 
so that, at the end of about twenty-three years, according to Buxton, 
instead of any increase, they had decreased from 800,000 to 700,000. 
The result of this movement was, that the exports from the whole Brit- 
ish West Indies, were reduced one-third below what they had been before 
the prohibition of the slave trade. 

Now, let us inquire a moment into the condition of Cuba and Brazil, 
which have been as fully dependent upon the slave trade for their supply 
of laborers, as the British West Indies were before 1808. 

A census of Cuba, a few years since, showed that out of a slave pop- 
ulation of 425,000 there were but 160,000 females. The slave popula- 
tion of Brazil is believed to be composed of about the same disproportion 
in the sexes as that of Cuba. The rate of mortality among adult slaves, 
imported from Aft'ica, is very great, being in Brazil, as before stated, 
near ten per cent, per annum, and requiring a renewal of that class of 
slaves, on the plantations, once in ten years. 

It is very easy, with these lights before us, to foresee what must be 
the effect of the suppression of the slave trade on Cuba and Brazil. 
The supply of slaves being cut off, the deaths must, in a few years, 
equalize the sexes, and result in a great decrease of the slave population. 
This must produce a corresponding diminution in their exports, for many 
years, extending, annually, to at least one-third then* former amount. 
This decrease in the supply of slave labor products, will create a corres- 
ponding increase of their prices in the markets. But this enhancement 
of their value will not compensate the Cuban and Brazilian slave hold- 
ers for their diminished production and tlie losses in the number of their 
slaves. The suppression of the slave trade, then, will be a serious pecu- 
niary loss to the slaveholders of these two countries. 

But who are to be benefited liy this revolution in slave labor coun- 
tries, hitherto dependent upon the slave trade? Undoubtedly, the 
benefits will be enjoyed by free lal)or, wherever it is employed in the 
cultivation of similar products; and by slave labor in countries not 
depending upon the African slave trade. This stimulus to industry, 
then, will reach Hayti, the British West Indies, and Liberia, to prompt 
their freemen to greater industry, by the prospect of better compensation 



10 Facts for Thinking Men. 

for their labor. As the supplies of slave-grown products diminish, and 
the prices increase, free labor products must be multiplied, and free labor 
itself, in some degree, be released from its embarrassments. 

But this stimulus of higher prices will reach the United States in a 
much greater degree, because our slaveholders are prepared, at once, to 
avail themselves of these advantages, and it will add to the stability of 
slavery, by increasing the price of its products, and enhancing the value 
of the slaves. Already the short supply of Cotton, before noticed, has 
vastly increased the value of both Cotton and slaves, and the suppression 
of tlie slave trade, at this juncture, must greatly add to the advantages 
of the slaveholder of the United States. 

After all the efforts, therefore, that have been made for the destruc- 
tion of slavery, dimng a half century of unwearied exertion, the progress 
of events has so complicated this great problem, that at the very moment 
when the slave trade is supposed to be extinguished, or nearly so, and 
tropical free labor left unshackled, the Christian world is more deeply 
indebted to slave labor than at any former period, and the slavery of the 
United States rendered more permanent and profitable, to all human 
appearance, than at any time since its origin. 

If any one douljts the justness of this conclusion, as a fair deduction 
from the facts which have been presented, we most sincerely and earnestly 
invite him to show us our error, as our only aim is the discovery of 
truth, in the light of which alone, can we hope to discover the path of 
duty, in relation to the great questions connected with the redemption 
of the African race. 

The investigations now completed, have conducted us to a most inter- 
esting conclusion, and brought out results wholly different, no doubt, 
from what most of our readers have been anticipating. They are, how- 
ever, legitimate deductions from \\\& facts connected with the subject, 
and show, most conclusively, that the question of slavery, in our country, 
is placed upon new grounds. 

It shows, also, that those who have had the control of the anti-slavery 
movements, have manifested little foresight in their policy, as nearly 
every measure adopted to check or suppress the evils of slavery and the 
slave trade, have been followed by results the reverse of what they 
expected, and were laboring to secure. But we have no disposition to 
find fault, our only aim being to point to the bearing that the new order 
of things must have upon African Colonization and the prosperity of the 
Republic of Liberia. 

While our researches have revealed the immense extent to which the 
Christian world is now consuming slave-grown products, at the same time 
the utmost capacity of slave labor, to meet the demands of commerce, 
has also been discovered. This is somethine; rained. In the United 
btates, the ratio of increase in the annual production of Cotton, keeps 
even pace with the natural increase of the slaves, and nothing more. 
Our sugar growers cannot go beyond this, except as they draw off the 
laborers from the cotton fields. Thus stands the slave labor of the 
United States. 

The slave population of Cuba and Brazil, should the slave trade be 
effectually suppressed, will soon be placed upon the same basis as that 
of the United States. The planters there, will have no increase of 



Facts for Thinking Men. 11 

laborers, excepting from tlie natural increase of the slaves. The reduc- 
tion of the slave population, by the death of the excess of males, judging 
from the results in the English colonies, after 1808, will not be made up 
by the natural increase, in less than thirty years. Until that occurs, 
Cuba and Brazil will bo unable to keep their expoi-ts up to the present 
amount. The exports of the Englisli colonies, upon the prohibition of 
the slave trade, fell off one-third, and a like result may now be expected 
in Brazil and Cuba. 

Under these circumstances, the utmost capacity of slave lal)or, in 
tropical and semi-tropical cultivation, can be accurately estimated, and 
the extent of its supplies to commerce be clearly foreseen. This will 
enable the friends of free labor to measure the strength and resources of 
the forces with which they must compete — a thing that was impossible 
under the reign of the slave trade. But on this point we shall not 
speculate. 

The present inability of free labor and slave labor, both combined, to 
meet the demands of commerce, and the reduction of cultivation that 
must occur in Cuba and Brazil, will leave a vaccuum in the markets, 
for tropical products, to be filled from other sources, or to give an 
increased value to the amount that can be supplied from the present 
fields of cultivation. 

But who is to be enriched by this result? Who is to supply the 
deficit, and reap the golden harvest it will afford? Or, in default of 
augmented cultivation, who are to have their coffers made to overflow 
by an increase in the price of the productions they are able to furnish? 
These questions are worth considering, and we uuist give them a 
moment's attention. 

The English West India free labor colonies cannot be much benefited, 
at present, by this increased demand for tropical products, as they can- 
not, immediately, increase their cultivation to any great extent. This 
will be readily admitted, when it is stated that the lands in these colo- 
nies are mostly held by white men, who reside in England ; and that 
the colored men in the islands own but a few acres each — barely enough, 
generally, to affijrd the necessary amount of food for their families. 

But already the West India landholders are bestirring themselves at 
the brightening prospects, and are appealing to the free colored people 
of the United States, to rush over to the islands, become loyal subjects 
of Queen Victoria, and faithful laborers on the plantations of English 
gentlemen ! Our free colored men, however, deserve something better 
than this, and they know it : and they give indications of a determina- 
tion to reject the proffered boon of becoming mere laborers in the sugar 
mills of the West Indies, especially as they cannot expect over Jifty 
cents per day, as wages. 

Doubtless, an increase of wages will now command more of the native 
labor of these islands, than at any time since emancipation, and tend to 
multiply their exports ; but no great advancement can be made until the 
intelligence of the colored people is raised much above the present 
standard, by more extensive means of education than now prevail, nor 
even then, until they become the owners of the soil. 

As Hayti still exports about one-third of her former amount of Coffee, 
she will be benefited by the rise in the price of that article ; but as her 



12 Facts for Thinhing Men. 

Sugar and Cotton cultivation has been greatly neglected for many years, 
she will derive little present advantage from that quarter by any in- 
cr<iased demand. 

Liberia, with only eight or nine thousand colonists, and eighty 
thousand partially civilized natives, mostly engaged in trade, or in pro- 
ducing food for home consumption, cannot derive any material l)enefit 
from an increased demand for Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, for some years 
to come. Her citizens, however, are now turning attention to their 
cultivation with encouraging success; and British capitalists offer to 
her citizens any amount of means for the employment of native labor 
in the cultivation of Cotton. Liberia can command an unbounded 
extent of fertile tropical lands, well adapted to the cultivation of all the 
three great staples upon which slave labor is now chiefly employed. 
She has within her own jurisdiction at least 300,000 natives, mostly 
uncivilized, and is backed in the interior and flanked on the west and 
east by untold millions who must ultimately be redeemed from barbarism. 
All this labor she must one day control. But as she has not now a 
sufficient number of men to carry on the work of civilization, and to 
control this labor, her wealth cannot be greatly augmented by any 
extent of demand for articles she is not producing. 

Kecent experiments in Australia, for the cultivation of Cotton, are 
said to have been eminently successful, but the still more recent dis- 
covery of gold in tliat country has drawn off the laborers from the cotton 
cultivation to the more tempting occupation of gold digging. 

It appears from these statements, that no tropical free labor countiy 
can derive much immediate benefit from an increased demand for tropical 
products ; and that the great practical good derived from it is only a 
consciousness that the slave trade can no longer paralyze tropical free 
labor and render the fruits of its industry valueless in the markets of 
the world. This, however, is one great point gained, and constitutes 
an era in the history of the African race. 

The parties, then, who will necessarily be benefited in the greatest 
degree, by the suppression of the slave trade, will be the native popula- 
tion of Africa and the slaveholders in the United States. All free 
labor countries, it is true, will be stimulated to immediate action, but 
they will require time to realize much of the benefits of the coming 
changes in the condition of slavery. The natives of Africa will merely 
be freed from their greatest curse, and be better pi-epared for civilization. 
Then, it is evident, that in the suppression of the slave trade, the slave- 
holders of the United States, alone, of all the parties named, will at 
once enter upon the enjoyment of the benefits of these changes, and 
will continue to be enriched thereby, until free labor multiplies its forces 
and throws into the markets a sufBcient amount of products to supply 
the demand and reduce the prices. 

But can free labor do this in a day, a year, or ten years? Certainly 
not. The task, however, has been begun, and in the only mode, and 
on the only territory in which it can succeed ; and, but for the unfor- 
tunate opposition of the Abolitionists, this work might have been in a 
much greater state of forwardness than we now find it. That mode is 
to employ the lahor of Africa within Africa. iMany moderate anti- 
slaverv men, who have hitherto opposed us in this effort to call out fi'ee 



Facts for Tliinking Men. 13 

labor in Africa, are now giv'ing up their opposition to Colonization 
bfting convinced that the good of the colored men themselves, as well 
as the interests of free labor, can be most efficiently promoted by emi 
gration to Liberia. But others are still violently opposed to Colonization 

Leaving out the 500,000 free colored persons of the United States 
and there are but about one million and three quarters of African free 
men employed in the cultivation of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, for export 
while the slave population, now similarly employed, is not less than six 
millions and three quarters ! Allowing the decrease of the slave popu- 
lation, in Cuba and Brazil, that will follow the suppression of the slave 
trade, only to equal that in the English colonies, after 1808, and there 
will still be left at least sis millions of slaves as competitors against one 
million and three quarters of freemen. 

Now, the contest, if conducted with these forces alone, will be an un- 
equal one, as the degi'ee of intelligence among the majority of the eman- 
cipated West India people is but a few degrees higher than that of the 
natives of Africa, and their voluntary industry will be proj)ortionally 
unproductive. 

In stating the strength of the free labor forces, employed as rivals to 
slave labor, we have not included the 500,000 free colored men of the 
United States. This was intentional, as they do not belong to the forces 
'practically arrayed against slavery. On the contrary, they are, to the 
utmost of then* pecuniary ability, as a body, engaged in its support. 
We speak knowingly, and mean what we say and beg to be heard. 

It is the extensive demand for slave labor products, and the profits 
on their sale, which is the main prop of slavery. Destroy this demand, 
and slave labor becomes valueless. Let the consumers become producers, 
and the task is accomplished to the full extent of the change effected. 
Draw off enough of the consumers into the ranks of the producers, to 
supply the demand for slave grown products, at lower rates than slave 
labor can afford them ; and the whole system must be paralyzed, just as 
certainly as the cheap slave labor, supphed by the slave trade, was ruin- 
ous to free labor. 

But the free colored people of the United States, instead of being 
thus arrayed against slavery, by remaining here, are practically sus- 
taining that institution, and perpetuating it as far as the patronage of a 
half milUon of customers can lend it support. 

How are they doing this 'i The colored people have sworn eternal 
enmity to slavery, and have pledged themselves to struggle for its 
downfall ; how is it, then, that they can be thus engaged, perseveringly, 
in the support of an institution towards which they bear an unbounded 
hatred ? 

Well, they are doing it in this way, and, like the Christian world at 
large, they are supporting slavery from necessity. At a moderate esti- 
mate, each free colored person pui'chases, annually, three dollars' worth 
of cotton goods for clothing. This gives a support to slave labor, and 
its manufacturing allies, of one million and a half of dollars a year; an 
amount more than equal to the whole sum expended in founding the 
Republic of Liberia ; and which, if invested in the hire of native labor 
in Africa, would employ over 60,000 freemen in the cultivation of Cot- 
ton, and give a tremendous impulse to free labor. 



14 Facts for Thinking Me?i. 

We know the free colored people did not mean so, but for all practical 
purposes, in the contest for African freedom, they have, all along, been 
fighting on the wrong side ! 

But what can these 500,000 free colored people do, to prevent the 
profitable extension of slave labor, now appearing so inevitable in conse- 
quence of its advantageous position! Shall they fight? That is a 
hopeless remedy. Shall they remain here to agitate the question, and 
continue the consumption of slave grown products? The past history 
of this mode of warfare, proves it powerless in promoting their object. 
What can they do, then, to secure to free labor at least the benefits of 
the increasing demands for tropical products, and thus limit slavery to 
its present advantages, and prevent its further extension ? Surely, the 
answer is a plain one. Let these 500,000 free colored persons become 
producers of free labor products, instead of consumers of those that are 
slave grown, and let them call to their aid ten times their own numbers, 
and soon their weight, as a people, would be felt and acknowledged by 
the Christian world. But there is no country in the world, except 
Africa, where a sufiicient amount of laborers can be found to aflfect this 
great question. 

And here now, allow us to say, that the whole practical tendency of 
Colonization, so for as it has reference to the free colored people, from 
the day of its origin, has been to array them on the side of free labor; 
and that, too, under such circumstances as would best promote their own 
interests and that of their children, and advance the cause of human 
freedom in Africa and throughout the world. For, so long as Africa 
remains barbarous, just so long will the people of color, scattered through- 
out the world, be reckoned as an inferior race, not capable of enjoying 
equal rights with the white races among whom they dwell. 

And allow us to say, further, that we do not expect that these 500,000 
free colored persons, by emigrating to Liberia, will be able, by the labor 
of their own hands to compete with the slave labor still employed in 
tropical cultivation, and to secure to themselves, at once, all the benefits 
of the increasing demands of commerce for the productions of the tropics : 
but we do say, that they will be equal participants in it, and that there 
is no other possible mode of employing the African free labor within 
Africa, and making it rival African slave labor in other countries, but 
by the emigration of intelligent colored men to that continent, to take its 
labor under their care and give it a proper direction. 

And is not the control of the labor of Africa suiEciently valuable to 
tempt the enterprise of intelligent colored men to secui-e its possession? 
Heretofore nations have contended for its monopoly, and is it not worth 
the attention of individuals ? Look at what African labor has done out 
of Africa, and then judge of its capabilities if employed within Afi-ica ; 
and judge, also, of the priceless boon which southern slaveholders be- 
stow upon their bondmen, when they offer them freedom in Liberia ! 

Hitherto the thousands of millions of dollars' worth of products, trans- 
ported by commerce to the ends of the earth, from the tropical and semi- 
tropical districts of the Western Hemisphere, to aggrandize the nations 
■who possessed their control, have all been created by the strong arms 
and broken hearts of the sons and daughters of Africa. Century after 
century, Africa's children have been torn from her bosom, to labor for 



Facts for Thinking Men. 15 

the enricliment of strangers, and to die and be forgotten as the brutes 
of the field ! Nor was this accomplished but by dreadful losses of human 
life — losses, which, if occurring in any ordinary branch of commerce, 
would lead to its abandonment as a ruinous speculation. Look at these 
losses but a moment : for each 300 men, made available to the planter, 
by the slave trade, Africa had to lose 1,000 — the 700 perishing in the 
casualties attending the traffic. Tropical cultivation must be vastly 
profitable to bear such losses as this. And yet, with all these disadvan- 
tages, what has not slave labor accomplished in the production of wealth ! 
Take as an example, the slave grown crops of Coffee, Sugar, and Cotton, 
for a single year, namely, 1849, and their market value, at only eight 
and one-half cents per pound, was over two hundred and thirty 7nillions 
of dollars ! ! 

Now if African labor, after the destruction of seven-tenths, to make 
thi-ee-tenths available, has enriched half the nations of the world, and 
now supplies the basis of two-thirds of their commerce, what may not be 
expected for Africa herself, when all her labor shall become available 
for her own aggrandizement? 

And, need we repeat, that Colonization is but a broad scheme of 
intervention, for securmg to Africa the benefits of her own labor ; that 
Liberia is but the foundation stone of the glorious temple, yet to be 
reared in Afi-ica, to freedom and to God ; that the part we ask our free 
colored people to perform, is but to perfect this work of benevolence and 
love ; that without their aid, the development of the resom-ces of Africa 
must be slow, and slave labor be left, almost without a rival, tolfextend 
itself upon this continent, crushing free labor and the colored freeman 
both into the dust ; and that, though there will be six milUons of slaves, 
against whom to do battle in the markets of the world, the free colored 
people, by removing to Africa, will have one hundred millions of their 
own race to summon to their aid, in sustaining themselves in this final 
struggle for the social, civil, and religious redemption of themselves and 
of the long benighted land of their fathers. 

And who will now dare to oppose Colonization, and say, that Africa, 
after enriching the world by her labor, shall not now receive back to her 
embrace, enough of her captive children to secure to herself the profits 
of her industry ! Who will be bold enough to deny to her enough of 
her enlightened sons, to organize her scattered tribes into one great 
nation, enabling her to become the gigantic connnercial country, for 
which she is so eminently fitted by her immense population and wonder- 
ful agricultural resources ! 

With such facts before him, as are embraced in these pages, who can 
fail to foresee the results of the new contest that is commencing, and to 
realize that the triumph or defeat of tropical free labor, is dependent upon 
the course of action adopted by the colored freemen of the United States. 
Truly, may it be said, that the destiny of Africa, and the African race, 
is now in their hands ! And, with equal truth, may we not assert, that 
opposition to Colonization, is opposition to the extension of Free Labor, 
and must tend to the perpetuation of slavery. 

Oxford, 0., December, 1852. 



Does the Slave Trade , exist among Liberians'^ 

The organization of the Re]iublic of Liberia, has effected a tjidical change in the commercial 
regulations within the territory over whii'li it claims jurisiUction. The laws of the Republic have 
interfered with the business of the merchants trading on that coast, by requiring that they shall 
now pay duties on the goods sold to the natives, where formerly they could traffic freely, with- 
out being interrupted by tariffs. This change in the mode of cenductiug their trade, has lessened 
the profits of the merchants, and has enr.aged. against the Republic, that class of them who have 
been more anxious to amass fortunes than to promote the social and moral ^relfare of the African 
people. 

The feebleness of the little Republic seems to have led this class of men to believe, that, if tliey 
could succeed in persuading Christian nations to withdraw then- protection, the settlements might 
easily be destroyed by hostile natives, or the government comiielled to relinquish its claims to the 
exercise of sovereignty. In either case, the trade of the coast would be restored to its previous 
condition, and they left in the possession of their former advantages. * 

The most artful and successful mode of att.ack upon Liberia, has been to represent the Colonists 
as aiding in the slave trade, and as subjecting the natives to slavery. This charge has been so 
often repeated, th.at the friends of Liberia, in England, have investigated the subject, and the 
following testimony, from men of the highest character in the British Navy, has been collected 
and laid before the public. Other testimony, equally conclusive, might be added, but what is 
here appended, is considered as amply sufficient to stamp the charges as infamously false. 

But we must first, state that the Constitution framed for the Colonists, by the American Colo- 
nization Society, and by which they were governed trom 1825 to 1836, declared, " Art. 'V. There 
shall te no slavery in the settlement ;'' and, further, that in 1839, a Legislative Council was 
created in Liberia, aud the Constitution remodeled, so as to read thus : 

Aet. 20. " There shall be no slavery in the CommoaweaUh." 

Art 22. " There shall be no dealing in slaves by any citizen of the Commonwealth, either 
within or beyond the hmits of the same.-' 

In 1847, the Colony declared itself an Independent Republic, with the following language In 
its Constitution : 

" Art. I. — Sec. 1, All men are born equally free and independent, and among their natural, 
inherent and inalienable rights, are the rights of enjoying and defending life and liberty. 

Sec. 4. There shall be no slavery within this KcpubUc. Nor shaU any citizen of this Republic 
or any person resident therein, deal in slaves, either within or without this Republic. 

Sec. 8. No person shall be deprived of life, hberty, property, privilege, but by the judgment 
of his peers, or the law of the land. *■ ■ ' ' ~ 

In testimony of her sincerity, in reference to human rights, in her Treaty with England, which 
went into operation in Aprh, 1850, Liberia binds herself as follows : 

Art. 9. " Slavery and the slave trade being perpetually abolished in the Republic of Liberia, 
the Republic engages that a law shall be passed declaring it to be piracy for any Liberian citizen 
or vessahito be engaged or concerned in the slave trade.'' 

Now for the testimony in relation to tlie faithfulness with which all these articles have been 
executed. [We quote from the Colonization Herald, Dec. 1852 ] 

" Captain Arabian, R. N., in one of his despatches says : '' Nothing has been done more to sup- 
press the slave trade in this; iquarter, than the constant intercourse of the natives with these indus- 
trious colonists ;" and, again : '• Their character is exceedingly correct and moral ; their minds 
strongly impressed with religious feeling ; a,id then- domestic habits, remarkably neat and com- 
fortable." " Wherever the influence of Liberia extends, the slave trade has been abandoned by 
the natives." 

Lieutenant Stott, R. N., in a letter to Dr. Ilodgkin, dated July, 1840, says, it (Liberia) promises 
to be the only successful institution on the coast of Africa, keeping in mind its olijects, viz : 
" that of raising the African slave into a free man ; the extinction of the slave trade ; and the 
religious and moral improvement of Africa :" and adds, " The surrounding Africans arc aware 
of the nature of the colony, taking refuge when persecuted by the few neighboring slave traders. 
The remnant of a tribe have lately fled to and settled in the colony on land granted them. 
Between my two visits, a lapse of only a few days, four or five slaves sought refuge from their 
master, who was about to sell or had sold them to the only slave factory on the coast. The 
native chiefs in the neighborhood have that respect for the colorusts, that they have made 
treaties for the abolition of the slave trade." 

Captain Irving, K. N., in a letter to Dr. K.jdgkin, August 3d, 1840, observes: "You ask me if 
they aid in the slave ti-ade. I assure you, no 1 .ind I am sure the colonists would feel themselves 
much hurt should they know such a question could possibly arise in England. In my opinion 
it is the best and safest plan for the extinctio.' of the slave trade, and the civilization of Africa ; 
for it is a well known fact that wherever their Hag flies it is an eye sore to the slave dealers." 

Captain Herbert, R. N. ; " With regard to the present state of slave taking in the colony of 
Liberia, I have never known one instance of a slave being owned or disposed of by a colonist. On 
the contrary, I have known them to render {,reat facility to our cruisers there in taking vessels 
engaged in that nefarious traffic." 

Captain Dunlop, who had abundant opportunities for becoming acquainted with Liberia during 
the years 1848, '49, and '50, says : " I am perfectly satisfied no such thing as domestic slavery 
exists, in any shape amongst the citizens of the Republic." 

Commodore Sir Charles Hotham, Commander-in-chief of II. B. Majesty's squadron on the West- 
ern Coast of Africa, in a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, dated April 7, 1847, and pub- 
lished in the Parliamentary Returns, says : '• On perusing the correspondence of my predecessors, 
I found a great difference of opinion existing as to the views and objects of the settlers ; some even 
accusing the governor of lending himself to the slave trade. After discussing the whole subject 
with officers and others best qualified to judge on the matter, I not only satisfied my own mind 
that there is no reasonable cause for such a suspicion, but further, that this establishment merits 
all the support we can give it ; for it is only through their means that we can hope to improve the 
African race." Subsequently, in 1849, the rumc officer gave his testimony before the House of 
Lords, in the following language : " There is no necessity for the squadron watching the coast 
between Sierra Leone and Cape Palmas, as the Liberi.an territory intervenes, and there the slave 
trade has been extinguished." 



54 








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